Dmitri Gurov and Anton Chekhovs The Lady With the Pet Dog - Literature review Example

 It is personal relationships and emotions which largely make a short story grip the imagination of a reader. The characters that make a lasting impression on the mind are usually those who display strong emotions regarding a relationship which plays a central role in the development of the plot. As the personal relationship develops, emotions come into play and are the decisive factor in deciding the actions of the character. The need for love, acceptance, passion and hatred all serve as motives in a story. Dmitri Gurov, in Anton Chekhov’s The Lady with the Pet Dog, and Calixta, in Kate Chopin’s “The Storm,” are two characters whose passions place them in a dilemma and lead them to make unconventional choices in their lives. Dmitri Gurov is the protagonist of Anton Chekhov’s The Lady with the Pet Dog. Gurov, trapped in an unhappy marriage, is on a holiday in Yalta when he meets Anna Sergeyevna, the ‘Lady with the pet dog’. Anna is also married. The cynical Gurov enters into a brief liaison with Anna and then they go their separate ways. However, Gurov cannot forget his time with Anna. He seeks her out in her home city and revives their relationship. The story ends on a tragic note as Gurov realizes that he cannot give up his true love but has to conceal it from the world. Gurov is a middle-aged, married man with three children. He is unhappy in his married life, does “not like to be at home,” (Chekhov, 1) and is attracted to other women. He has been unfaithful to his wife often. With “the tempting thought of a swift, fleeting love affair,” (Chekhov, 2), he develops a relationship with Anna Sergeyevna while on holiday in Yalta. On his return to Moscow, to his surprise, Gurov finds that he is unable to forget Anna. Her memory “followed him about everywhere like a shadow and haunted him” (Chekhov, 9). As his feelings for Anna become an obsession, he realizes that he is “in a nice fix. . . .” (Chekhov, 11). His passion for Anna puts him in a dilemma. He can choose to ignore his feelings and go on with his life. However, he makes an unconventional choice and submits to his passion. Gurov searches Anna out and develops a permanent relationship with her. He chooses to give in to his emotions for Anna when he realizes that “he had fallen properly, really in love--for the first time in his life” (Chekhov, 16). Gurov’s overwhelming need for Anna’s love leads him to the unconventional choice of meeting Anna is secrecy at intervals. His passion dictates that he “lives two lives,” in which his time with Anna is a “life running its course in secret” (Chekhov, 15). Ironically, it is his hidden life with Anna that reflects the true Gurov. He chooses to live in deception and the “intolerable bondage” (Chekhov, 16) of long absences from his love. His choice transforms Gurov from the cynical man at the start of the story into a compassionate and tender lover. Calixta, the heroine of Kate Chopin’s “The Storm,” is a married woman with a little son. One day, when her husband, Bobinot, and her son are out shopping, a furious storm rages. Alcée Laballière, her old suitor, comes looking for shelter from the fury outside. Emotions rise in both of them and Alcée makes advances towards Calixta. After some initial hesitation, Calixta submits and indulges in passionate lovemaking with Alcée. Their sexual interchange lasts during the period of the storm and Alcée departs when the tempest ends. Calixta reverts to her role of mother and housewife, and goes on with her routine life, her emotions spent. Calixta, like Gurov, is married and is a mother. However, unlike Gurov, she is content with her marriage, playing the role of the “over-scrupulous housewife” (Chopin, 5), busy with domestic chores like sewing and laundry. When her old suitor, Alcée Laballière, comes home seeking shelter from the storm which rages outside, his proximity with her leads to a revival of “all the old-time infatuation and desire for her flesh” (Chopin, 3) in him. Like Gurov, Calixta finds herself in the dilemma of extra-marital sexual attraction. She first attempts to repudiate Alcée’s advances by “releasing herself from his encircling arm and retreating from the window” (Chopin, 3). Finally, she chooses to submit to her rising passion. Calixta makes the unconventional choice of having an extramarital affair. Calixta chooses to fulfill her need for sexual fulfillment by indulging in passionate lovemaking with an old suitor in the absence of her husband. She feels her hidden sensuality rising up: “the fear in her liquid blue eyes had given place to a drowsy gleam that unconsciously betrayed a sensuous desire” (Chopin, 3). Like Gurov, she chooses to surrender to her overwhelming need for passion and gives her body “up in quivering ecstasy, inviting his lips” (Chopin, 4). She goes on to resolve her unorthodox choice by accepting it with a guiltless joy. Calixta then puts it aside and continues with her life, tasting a new sense of contentement. Gurov and Calixta both experience overwhelming passion in their relationships with Anna and Alcée. In pursuing this passion, Gurov chooses to establish a long-term, secret relationship with Anna. He cannot resolve his dilemma, although he hopes to overcome the tragedy of having to live apart from the love of his life. Calixta gives in to her need for passionate love-making. Once she is sated, she accepts her choice with a guilt-free satisfaction and returns to her role of contented wife and mother. Anton Chekhov’s The Lady with the Pet Dog, and Kate Chopin’s “The Storm,” are largely based on the unconventional choices made by the characters and the consequences of their actions. It is these choices, and their consequences, which make the two stories interesting reading. Works Cited. Chekhov, Anton. “The Lady with the Pet Dog.” Title of Collection. Ed. Editor's Name(s). City of Publication: Publisher, Year. Page range of entry. Medium of Publication. Chopin, Kate. “The Storm.” Title of Collection. Ed. Editor's Name(s). City of Publication: Publisher, Year. Page range of entry. Medium of Publication. Read More